Scientists still don't know what is causing some Florida panthers to display signs of a neurological disorder, but they've given it a name: feline leukomyelopathy.
"They (biologists) gave it a name they can use while they’re talking about it," said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Carli Segelson.
FWC is the state agency in charge of protecting wildlife like the panther, the state animal and an endangered species.
Several Florida panthers were stricken with the neurological disorder earlier this year, which caused the cats to walk with a strange gait. Some of the cats had to be euthanized.
"They’re not sure if it’s different toxins in the environment or infectious disease or related to nutritional deficiencies, so there’s still a lot to be learned," Segelson said. "But there’s no ‘aha’ moment."
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Kristen Kerr was raised among lions, cheetahs and other wild animals. The 21-year-old, from South Africa, was born on an animal sanctuary and they have always been a huge part of her life. Describing herself as a real-life Dr Dolittle, she even chose to be home-schooled at the age of 10 because she missed the animals too much she was at school.
Now an adult, she works full-time at a sanctuary, looking after cheetahs, giraffes, meerkats and zebras, among other things – no animal is considered too dangerous or small for the sanctuary. Kristen said: ‘My dad Barry, 54 raises lions and other big cats he has taught me everything I know. ‘We rescued three of our current cheetahs from a breeding farm, where the owner got into financial problems and lost his farm, one of which was pregnant, so I raised the cubs from birth.
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Search for the injured tigress in Sehore forest division would begin on Monday.
Forest officials said that tigress has escaped herself inside den after being disturbed with the movement of elephants and sniffer dogs. As the feline has not killed any prey for a few days, she might be hungry. The team has stopped search for the tigress to make her come out of den. The team was making strict patrolling in suspected areas for one week but the tigress did not kill any prey for a week. The team has spotted ten different tigers during the search but failed to find out the injured tigress.
Talking to ‘The Hitavada’, Chief Conservator of Forest Ravindra Saxena said, “There are several dens round Veerpur, Kathotiya Jhiri and Karry Mahadev area where big cats can easily escape. It is very difficult to run four wheeler vehicles in the area and elephants are too unable to walk here. We have to wait for another movement of tigress when she moves on the field.” He further informed that tigress T-21 was not being trapped for past few days around Kathotiya range and now she has been traced on Obedullaganj division during the haunt.
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Farmers staged a dharna outside the divisional forest officer’s office on Monday to press for the capture of a leopardess that is suspected to have killed at least three of the five people who have died in big cat attacks in Bijnor district since November 27.
Famers are demanding that the “killer leopardess” be captured, fearing for their lives, especially when they go to their cane fields for harvesting the crop. Leopards are known to lurk in cane fields and attack people.
The forest department has set up three more cages to capture the leopardess near the sugarcane fields where its presence was captured on a camera trap. In the past one week, people have reported 20 leopard sightings in the area.
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The elusive Fen Tiger - a near mythical beast said to wander Cambridge's countryside - has been spotted again.
Raechel Waldon, 45, was out walking her three dogs with her partner when she saw the mysterious creature.
She described seeing a cat "about the size of a Labrador" as she walked behind Abbotsley golf club, near St Neots, last Wednesday (December 18).
She told CambridgeshireLive: “I saw basically what I can only describe as a large cat. It was about the size of a labrador.
“It wasn’t the size of a puma, but it was a very large, wild-looking cat, and it was a brown or black colour.
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"I was out on leave by myself, chiefly after lions. My native shikari (game tracker) came into my tent with an auspicious grin, just as I was finishing my breakfast, and said, ‘Sahib, I think I have got the big lion for you at last today; I have marked a big beast under a tree about four miles off; what it is I do not know…,’” Colonel E.A. Hardy of the 21st Hussars wrote in 1878, in his book Our Horses. The Colonel set out for his hunt, and some 30 yards away, he saw what he thought was a single large beast lying fast asleep. “I fired. To the shot up sprang six cheetahs, beautiful brutes, growling and rushing over each other, one evidently severely wounded. I was really so taken aback myself, I was stupid for a moment; but before I could determine whether to fire my second barrel or to bolt, the old shikari yelled out, ‘Come quickly for your horse, they are cheetahs, you can spear them; we’ll kill them all!’”
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Nepal recently announced that its tiger population had increased from 121 animals in 2009 to as estimated 235 in 2018, putting it firmly on track to fulfill its goal of doubling the number of big cats within its borders by the year 2022. The country has the largest number of Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) outside of India.
But there’s a dark side to this population increase: More tigers in Nepal are dying.
According to a letter published recently in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation, 55 adult tigers died in Nepal between 2009 and 2018. Tiger mortality was so high that the number of cats in the supposedly safe stronghold of Chitwan National Park dropped from 120 in 2013 to 93 last year.
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